Saturday, October 29, 2005

Request for column: Distorted view of the Libby indictment

It is clear that, at least by sometime in January 2004 -- and probably much earlier -- Fitzgerald knew this law had not been violated. Plame was not a "covert" agent but a bureaucrat working at CIA headquarters. Instead of closing shop, however, Fitzgerald sought an expansion of his mandate and has now charged offenses that grew entirely out of the investigation itself. In other words, there was no crime when the investigation started, only, allegedly, after it finished. Unfortunately, for special counsels, as under the code of the samurai, once the sword is drawn it must taste blood.

"It is clear" that these writers decided these things in a closed room, while covering each others' eyes and ears, and putting pen to paper in a pleasing way for a while, then re-reading the scribbles and interpreting them as evidence on which to base this article.